Diorex

I am very frequently asked “what is the best niche for a newbie?” or “What is the best niche to expand to once I have had some success?” or even “What is the next hot niche?”

I feel like I have been writing about this almost since the start, but it seems people just seem to miss it or I am getting senile.

The best niche is one that no one else is in and there are literally thousands of them left.

If you start by looking on CJ or ShareaSale then that is better than looking on a CPA network where apparently there are only like 5 verticals - credit, diet, dating, auto, and zip submits… (or so it seems). Even better would be to go the local flea market or hobbyist convention and see what people there are talking about or selling - maybe even check out the obscure listings in Ebay - look around for the booths or listings with people at them (or bids) - is it gumballs or bowling shoes or designer picture frames who cares as long as it does not scream affiliate marketing…

If you can do a search and find 2 or 3 paid ads, none of which are affiliate links now you may have found your niche. It means there is enough online interest in the product for people to be doing business, but not so much that CPC is bid up to unprofitable levels. Find a local company that can provide the product cheaply - or maybe you are aggressive and go straight to a national distributor and arrange a drop ship arrangement or even start as an affiliate of an existing business (after you explain what that is to the 45 year old guy running the company).

Retail markups are typically fairly large and in a less competitive space you dont have to give away all that much to be a good price, plus the inefficiencies of your competitors when it comes to internet marketing mean that even though you might not have the best prices you will still outmarket them if you have half a clue, because most of them arent even aware there are clues to be had.

Once a decent product with decent search volume is located, immediately begin seeking out the best domain name possible don’t buy TheBest-Niche_website.biz when you can be Niche.com for a few thousand dollars. The domain name lends instant credibility and allows you to be more professional than the guys you compete with.

It is my opinion that you can almost certainly learn 85% as much about the niche as those who have been doing it for decades in a matter of months while at the same time out marketing these Niche specialists by a huge margin. You will understand technology and the importance of tracking analytics and testing (if not please unsubscribe from my blog), understand Google and Yahoo and MSN plus have heard of Facebook and MySpace. You will understand Ebay and possible Amazons marketplace. You will have a clue on how to best collect and use email, plus maybe have some insight into the idea of coupon codes and Free Shipping or design of web pages or any of a dozen other things that increase sales. In no time at all you should own that niche and be the major player, with no competition.

Face it, almost no one reading this blog has a shot at starting a mortgage lead company or building a competitor to proflowers or cars.com making tens of millions a year. Just because you cannot own a $100 million dollar niche does not mean you cannot own a $5 million one… or even own several of them.

Bottom line, if you are looking for your path to fame and fortune through internet marketing and are starting on a CPA network you have probably already lost the game.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 11:36 pm and is filed under Rants, affiliate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.